GROUP MEMBER:

1. NURUL NABILAH BINTI RAMLAN (2021495176)

2. NUR HIKMAH BINTI ABU BAKAR (2021868498)
3. NURUL FAIZA BINTI MOHD AMALUDDIN (2021614834)
4. HANANI BINTI HANAFI (2021459268)

Answer of Tutorial Chapter 9

1. Even though it may be time consuming and even difficult to document performance, it is
extremely important to do so for several reasons. First, observing and evaluating
developmental activities and performance in general is a complex cognitive task. Thus,
documentation helps prevent memory-related errors. Second, when documentation exists
to support evaluations, there is no mystery regarding the outcomes. This, in turn,
promotes trust and acceptance of decisions based on the evaluation provided. Third,
documenting developmental activities and their outcomes allows for a discussion about
specific facts and careful examination of these facts allows for better planning of
developmental activities for the future. Finally, keeping accurate records of what
developmental activities employees complete and to what degree of success, and of
performance in general, is a good line of defense in case of litigation based on
discrimination of wrongful termination.

2. When documenting performance, use the following tips:

● Be specific. Document specific events and outcomes. Avoid making general
statements such as “he’s lazy.” Provide specific examples to illustrate your point.
● Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly. The use of evaluative adjectives and
adverbs may lead to ambiguous interpretations. In addition, it may not be clear
whether the level of achievement has been average or outstanding.
● Balance positives with negatives. Document instances of both good and poor
performance. Do not focus on only the positives or the negatives.
● Focus on job-related information. Focus on information that is job-related and,
specifically, related to the developmental activities and goals at hand.
● Be comprehensive. Include information on performance regarding all
developmental goals and activities and cover the entire review period as opposed
 to a shorter time period. Also, document performance for all employees—not only
those who achieve their developmental goals (or those who do not).
● Standardize procedures. Use the same way and format to document information
for all employees.
● Use behavioral terms. Phrase your notes in behavioral terms and avoid statements
that would imply subjective judgment or prejudice.

3. Performance review meetings usually follow the sequence of steps below:

● Explain the purpose of the meeting. The first step includes a description of the
purpose of the meeting and the topics to be discussed.
● Self-appraisal. This portion of the meeting allows the employee to provide his or
her perspective regarding performance. The role of the supervisor is to listen to
what the employee has to say and to summarize what he or she heard.
● Share ratings and explain rationale. Next, the supervisor explains the rating he or
she provided for each performance dimension and explains the reasons that led to
each score. It is more effective to start with a discussion of the performance
dimensions for which there is agreement between the employee’s self-appraisal
and the supervisor’s appraisal. For areas for which there is disagreement between
self and supervisor ratings, the supervisor must take great care in discussing the
reason for his or her rating and provide specific examples and evidence to support
the score given. For dimensions for which the score is low, there should be a
discussion of the possible causes for poor performance.
● Developmental discussion. Now the supervisor and the employee should discuss
and agree on the developmental steps that will be taken to improve performance
in the future.
● Employee summary. Next, the employee should summarize, in his or her own
words, the main conclusions of the meeting: what performance dimensions are
satisfactory, which need improvement, and how improvement will be achieved.
● Rewards discussion. The supervisor should explain the rules used to allocate
rewards and how the employee would be able to reach higher rewards levels as a
consequence of future performance improvement.
 ● Follow-up meeting. Before the meeting is over, it is important to schedule the
next performance-related formal meeting.
● Approval and appeals process discussion. Finally, the supervisor asks the
employee to sign the form to attest that the evaluation has been discussed. In
addition, if disagreements about ratings have not been resolved, the supervisor
should remind the employee of the appeals process.
● Final recap. Finally, the supervisor summarizes what happened during the review
period in terms of performance levels in the various dimensions, reviews how
rewards will change based on this level of performance, and sums up what the
employee will need to do in the next year to maintain and enhance performance.

4. The functions involved in coaching include:

● Giving advice to help employees improve their performance, including not only
what needs to be done, but also how things need to be done. Both results and
behaviors should be addressed.
● Providing employees with guidance, so that employees can develop the skills and
knowledge that are necessary to do the work correctly, and also providing
information on how the employee can acquire these skills and knowledge.
● Providing support to employees and being there only when the manager is
needed. Coaching involves being there when the employee needs support, but
does not involve monitoring and controlling an employee’s every move. Coaching
is about facilitation.
● Giving employees confidence that will enable them to enhance their performance
continuously. Giving positive feedback can give employees confidence in the
things they do.
● Helping employees gain greater competence by guiding them toward acquiring
more knowledge and sharpening skills that can prepare them for more complex
tasks and higher-level positions.

5. As a supervisor at a manufacturing company coaching one of the veteran employees of

the company, I must display a large set of complex behaviors, including:
 ● Establishing developmental objectives—working along with employees to
develop objectives that are clear, achievable, and challenging.
● Communicating effectively—including communicating positive and negative
feedback regarding behavior and results.
● Motivating employees—through the use of rewards for desired behavior and
results, and other methods of motivation.
● Documenting performance—observing and documenting performance, behaviors,
and results.
● Giving feedback—including measuring progress toward goals and pointing out
successes as well as failures and providing insight as to how to avoid poor
performance in the future.
● Diagnosing performance problems—including determining whether performance
problems are due to deficiencies in knowledge, skills, abilities, or motivation, or
are the result of circumstances beyond the control of the employee, then providing
the resources and help required to remedy the deficiencies.
● Developing employees—providing financial support and resources required for
employee development.

6. The styles of coaching are:

● The driver style is one in which the coach tells the employee what to do, such as
“This task must be completed this way.” These coaches tend to be assertive, speak
quickly and often firmly, usually talk about tasks and facts, are not very
expressive, and expose a narrow range of personal feelings to others.
● The persuader style is one in which the coach attempts to convince the employee
why he or she should do a task a certain way. Persuaders are assertive, but tend to
use expansive body gestures, talk more about people and relationships, and
expose others to a broad range of personal feelings.
● The amiable style is one in which the coach directs employees based on feelings.
“This feels like the right way to handle this situation.” The coach may rely on his
or her own feelings or the feelings of the employee. Amiable coaches are not very
 assertive, speak deliberately and pause often, seldom interrupt others, and make
many conditional statements.
● The analyzer style is one in which the coach analyzes performance in a logical
and systematic way and then follows rules and procedures before providing
recommendations. These coaches are not very assertive, and are more likely to
talk about facts and tasks than about personal feelings.

7. The steps of the coaching process are:

● Setting developmental goals that are reasonable, attainable, and derived from a
careful analysis of the areas where an employee needs to improve. These goals
should take into account both short-term and long-term career objectives.
● Identifying resources and strategies that will help the employees achieve the
developmental goals.
● Implementing strategies that will allow the employee to achieve the
developmental goals.
● Collecting and evaluating data to assess the extent to which each of the
developmental goals has been achieved.
● Providing feedback to the employee and then revising developmental goals as
needed.

8. When attempting to observe an employee’s performance regarding developmental

activities, a coach may experience the following constraints:
● Time constraints—coaches (supervisors) may be too busy to gather information
on an employee’s progress. Too much time between assignment of activity and
the supervisor checking on the employee’s progress may be problematic.
● Situational constraints—supervisors may not be able to directly observe an
employee’s developmental activities and therefore will not have firsthand
information regarding performance of these activities.
● Activity constraints—some activities are highly unstructured and a supervisor
may have to wait until the activity is finished, or until milestones have been
completed, before evaluating performance in the activity.
9. Documentation of developmental activities and progress is important because it:
● Minimizes cognitive load—documentation helps prevent memory-related errors.
● Creates trust—documentation reduces mystery in evaluations by providing
documentation of behaviors.
● Plans for the future—documentation allows for discussion about specific facts
rather than hearsay and allows for better planning for developmental activities in
the future.
● Provides legal protection—documentation of performance and behaviors reduces
the likelihood of legal issues upon dismissal or termination for cause.

10. When documenting performance and developmental activities:

● Be specific, because generalities cause confusion and make it impossible for
employees to know exactly which behaviors and performance are successful and
which are not.
● Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly, because evaluative adjectives and adverbs
may lead to ambiguous interpretations, and again, to confusion. Avoiding these
interpretations will lead employees to have a better understanding of the
behaviors and performance they are expected to exhibit.
● Balance positives with negatives, because focusing on only negative performance
will lead to resentment, and focusing on only positive performance will not give
employees the opportunity to improve performance.
● Focus on job-related performance, because there is no need to evaluate
performance that is not job-related, as that performance cannot necessarily be
controlled by the organization. Additionally, focusing on performance that is not
job-related can lead to legal issues.
● Be comprehensive and include information regarding all aspects of job
performance and developmental activities rather than focusing on one aspect. This
is the only way that an employee will be able to achieve maximum performance
in all areas of job performance.
 ● Standardize procedures, because using the same procedures to document
performance for all employees will foster trust and reduce the likelihood of legal
problems.
● Describe observable behavior, because this will reduce the likelihood of
subjective judgments or prejudice which may lead to mistrust and possibly legal
liability.

11. The main purposes of feedback are that it:

● Helps build confidence. Praising good performance helps build confidence for
future performance.
● Develops competence. Information about what has been done right and how to do
the job correctly is valuable information that helps employees become more
competent in future performance.
● Enhances involvement. Discussing performance issues allows the employee to
understand his or her role in the unit and the organization and fosters greater
involvement.

12. The key features of effective feedback are that it is:

● Timely—feedback is not as effective if it is given much after the incident; giving
feedback as soon as possible after the behavior will help the employee to improve
performance.
● Frequent—feedback should happen on an ongoing basis, as frequently as possible.
Too little feedback will result in slow, if any, improvement in performance.
● Specific—generalized comments of “you’re doing a good job” are nice to hear,
but they will not be as effective in improving performance as specific information
regarding behaviors and performance.
● Verifiable—the information commented on should be verifiable and accurate,
rather than based on inferences and rumors. Feedback is unlikely to be accepted
by the employee if it is based on inaccurate information about behavior.
● Consistent—good performance should result in positive feedback and poor
performance should result in negative feedback across all situations, so that
 feedback will not come as a shock to the employee. Although some employees
may be surprised by negative feedback, it is important that similar behaviors are
not sometimes met with harsh criticism and sometimes met with praise.
● Private—employees should receive feedback in a place and time that will allow
them to accept the information without an audience. Even positive feedback may
cause embarrassment for an employee.
● Includes description of consequences—employees should understand the
consequences of their behavior so that they will realize the importance of their
involvement in the organization.
● Descriptive first and evaluative second—the first order of business is to describe
the behavior that was observed. Once there is agreement about what happened,
evaluation can take place without as much risk of defensiveness, which makes the
feedback more effective.
● Related to a performance continuum—feedback should include information
regarding positive aspects of the performance and negative aspects of the
performance, and include an explanation of what steps can be taken to perform
the positive performance more often and the poor performance less often.
● Based on identifiable patterns of performance—negative feedback is most
effective when it is based on patterns of performance rather than isolated
incidents. Patterns of behavior can also be helpful in identifying the reasons for
poor performance.
● A confidence builder for employees—a coach can use feedback as a confidence
builder by stressing that he or she is confident that the employee can improve his
or her behavior. This also ensures that the employee understands that the feedback
is about performance rather than about the performer.
● A tool for generating advice and ideas—feedback is a good opportunity for a
supervisor to give advice about how to improve performance, but should also be a
good opportunity to solicit ideas from the employee about how performance may
be improved.

13. People are sometimes uncomfortable giving negative feedback because:

 ● They fear negative reactions and consequences—managers may be fearful that
employees will react in a negative way, including defensiveness and anger.
Additionally, managers may also fear that working relationships, and even
friendships, will suffer because of negative feedback.
● They have had negative experiences in the past—managers may have had
negative experiences with feedback in the past from their own supervisors and,
because of that experience, may be reluctant to give negative feedback to their
charges.
● They don’t want to play “God”—some managers may feel that giving negative
feedback places them in a position of “all knowing” or “God-like” and they want
to avoid that position.
● They need irrefutable and conclusive evidence—some managers are unwilling to
risk providing negative feedback without irrefutable evidence. Although
information used for feedback must be verifiable, it is not necessary to have
irrefutable evidence of a behavior; however, some managers may not feel
comfortable without that evidence.

14. Supervisors can take the following steps to prevent defensive responses during the
performance review meeting:
● Establish and maintain rapport.
O Start by making sure that the meeting takes place in a good environment.
O The meeting should be private and there should be no interruptions.
O The supervisor should put the employee at ease and foster two-way
communication. Some ways of handling this are sitting next to the employee
rather than across a desk, chatting with the employee briefly, and using the
employee’s name, among other techniques. (Failure to establish and maintain
rapport may lead to a cold and closed communication environment and may foster
defensiveness and challenges to what is being said.)
● Be empathetic—the supervisor should put him or herself into the shoes of the
employee and try to discover what has caused the employee’s behavior and
 performance rather than assuming that any positive performance has been caused
by external forces or that negative performance is caused by internal forces.
● Observe verbal and nonverbal cues—the supervisor should be able to read, and
react to, the employee’s emotions and reactions to feedback to determine if
clarification is required.
● Minimize threats—the meeting should be framed as having the goal to benefit the
employee rather than to punish the employee.
● Encourage participation—the supervisor should not monopolize the meeting,
allowing the employee to express views and to speak openly.

15. The guiding principles for understanding successful coaching include the following:
● A good coaching relationship is essential:
O Trusting and collaborative
O Willing to listen in order to understand
O Looking for positive aspects of the employee
O Understanding that coaching is done with the employee, not to the employee
● The employee is the source and director of change.
● The employee is whole and unique.
● The coach is the facilitator of the employee’s growth.

16. It is important for a manager to be concerned with an employee’s core self-evaluation

when giving feedback to employees. This is because individuals with low core
self-evaluations are more sensitive to feedback because they feel they are less able to deal
with the world and, consequently, are overall less satisfied with their jobs and lives in
general. Recommendations about “confidence in the employee” and “advice and idea
generation” are particularly helpful for employees with low core self-evaluations.

17. A decision-making leave is a once-in-a-career “day of contemplation” in which an

employee is allowed to take a paid one day leave to stay home and decide whether
working in this organization is what he or she really wants to do. Its purpose is to give the
employee an opportunity to evaluate his or her current work effort, to see if the employee
 will improve his or her performance in the work place. In addition, a decision-making
leave holds the employee responsible for their future actions with the organization.

18. The five pitfalls associated with the disciplinary process are:
1. Acceptance of poor performance
2. Failure to get the message through
3. Performance standards are “unrealistic” or “unfair”
4. Negative affective reactions
5. Failure to consult human resources.

In order to avoid the five pitfalls, one should engage in each of the following,
respectively:
1. Do not ignore the problem. Rather, address any problem as soon as
possible.
2. Be very specific about the performance problem and the consequences
of not addressing it effectively. You can also document the action plan and
secure the employee’s agreement regarding the plan.
3. Remind the employee that (a) his or her performance standards are
similar to others holding the same position, and (b) performance standards
have been developed over time with the participation of the employee in
question. Further, one could share documentation from past appraisals
with the employee.
4. Do not let emotional reactions derail you from your mission, which is to
describe the nature of the problem, what needs to be done, and
consequences of not doing so. If necessary, the manager should be
prepared to offer compassion, provide the employee with space, or
reschedule the meeting.
5. Consult with the Human Resources Department regarding any legal
issues before engaging in the disciplinary process.
19. Each of the following points are the six suggestions for the termination meeting along
with a description of why they are important:
1. Be respectful. Treat the terminated employee with respect and dignity and keep
information regarding the termination confidential.
2. Get right to the point. At this state, the less said, the better. Summarize the
performance problems, actions that the organization has taken to help the
employee overcome these problems, outcomes of these actions, and the decision
about termination that you have reached.
3. Wish the employee well. The purpose of this meeting is not to re-hash all the
reasons for your termination decision. Instead, use the meeting to wish the person
well in his or her next job and that he or she will be missed.
4. Send the employee to Human Resources. Allow the employee to receive
information regarding his or her benefits and legal rights. If appropriate, seek
outside legal counsel for this information.
5. Have the employee leave immediately. Keeping the terminated employee
on-site can lead to gossip, conflict, and disgruntled employees may engage in
sabotage.
6. Have the termination meeting at the end of the day. This will allow the
employee to leave the office as everyone else and also there will be fewer people
around.

These suggestions are important mainly for two reasons: first, to protect the feelings and
future of the terminated employee; and second, to protect the organization and the
employees within the organization. A termination is difficult enough for the employee.
There is no reason to make it any more difficult on the employee. Further, a termination
could easily provoke contention and disrupt employees within the organization. The more
this can be limited, the better it is.